WEDNESBURY  , a

market town and municipal and parliamentary borough of Staffordshire, England, in the Black Country, 121 M . N.W. from London by the London & North-Western railway, and on the northern line of the Great Western . Pop . (1901) 26,554 . An overhead electric tramway connects with Walsall, 31 M . N . The town is ancient, but of modern growth and appearance as an industrial centre . The church of St Bartholomew, however, is a fine Perpendicular building, standing high . It is traditionally supposed to occupy the site of a place of the worship of Woden or Odin, and the name of the town to be derived from this god through the form Wodensborough . A church was built, probably in the 1th century, and from 1301 to 1535 the advowson, tithes, &c., belonged to the abbot of Halesowen . The present church was several times restored in the 18th and 19th centuries . The chief public buildings are the town hall (1872), art gallery (1891), and free library (1878) .

Coal, limestone and ironstone are mined . A special kind of coal, giving an intense heat, is largely used in forges . There are great iron and steel works, producing every kind of heavy goods used by railway and engineering works, such as boiler plates, rails, axles, tubes, bolts and nuts . Stoneware potteries are also important . Similar industries, with brick-making, are practised at DARLASTON, an urban district (pop . 15,395), within the parliamentary borough . «'ednesbury returns one member to parliament . The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors . Area, 2287 acres . Here Ethelfleda,widow of 'Ethelred of Mercia, in g16 constructed a castle . The place is not mentioned in Domesday, but appears to have belonged to the barony of Dudley . After the Conquest it became a demesne of the crown, and it was bestowed by Henry II. on the Heronvilles .

It received parliamentary

representation in 1867, and became a municipal borough in 1886 .